As you prepare for what we hope is a safe and meaningful Memorial Day weekend, we’ve got several SonicWall news articles to help you end this week right. The Record and TechBullion cited data from the 2023 Cyber Threat Report. CRN discussed SonicWall’s perspective on extortion-only attack trends. Security Boulevard quoted SonicWall’s PSIRT Operational Security Manager Immanuel Chavoya on South Korea and the United States cybersecurity plans.

In industry news, Ars Technica covered the Chinese state-backed hackers slithering around critical infrastructure in the U.S. Bleeping Computer had the lowdown on an employee in the United Kingdom who committed a ransomware attack on his own employer. Dark Reading provided details on the Expo vulnerability causing open authorization problems. TechCrunch discussed new sanctions on North Korean threat actors from the U.S. government.

Remember to keep your passwords close and your eyes peeled – cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.

SonicWall News

U.S.-South Korea Forge Strategic Cybersecurity Framework

Security Boulevard, SonicWall News: Immanuel Chavoya, SonicWall’s emerging threat expert, noted that the accord ushered in a new approach to cybersecurity that is based on cooperation and information sharing. “The introduction of a U.S./South Korea ‘Strategic Cybersecurity Cooperation Framework’ fundamentally alters the global cybersecurity landscape. It exemplifies a shift from siloed defenses to collective global security, fortifying the digital ecosystem against threats by pooling resources, intelligence and expertise,” Chavoya said. “This sends a message to nation-state actors like DPRK: The world’s cyberdefenders are uniting against threat actors who leverage our digital interconnectedness to disrupt our daily lives, making every digital interaction a new front line in this asymmetric war. As we often say, the best offense is a good defense—and in this case, it’s a defense extending traditional alliances across continents and cyberspace alike.”

Cyber Insurers May Want To Rethink Ransom Payments Based On This New Data

CRN, SonicWall News: In many cases, these “extortion-only” attacks are a more lucrative and easier alternative to the process of encryption and negotiation that’s involved in a typical ransomware attack, CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence head told CRN recently. SonicWall, meanwhile, cited extortion-only groups including Lapsus$ and Karakurt as further evidence of the trend.

Cryptomining group traced to Indonesia uses compromised AWS accounts

The Record, SonicWall News: Despite falling digital asset prices, cryptojacking reached record levels in 2022, according to research from cybersecurity firm SonicWall.

Rouble Malik Sheds Light On The Rising Threat Of Cybersecurity Attacks On Smes And Advocates Stronger Protective Measures

TechBullion, SonicWall News: The 2022 Cybersecurity Threat Report by SonicWall indicates a 62% increase in global ransomware attacks, demonstrating the evolving sophistication and prevalence of malware-based threats.

Capita tells pension provider to ‘assume’ 500,000 customers’ data stolen

ITPro, SonicWall News: Immanuel Chavoya, senior manager of product security at SonicWall told ITPro that the latest update highlights the potential long-term impact that this breach could have on Capita partner organizations.

The outsourcing giant provides services for both public and private sector clients, including the UK Ministry of Defence. “Cyber attacks such as the one on Capita require a bit of long-tail analysis to capture a clear understanding of impact, but what is known is that the ripple effect of a cyber attack like the one on Capita can be far-reaching, extending beyond the organization itself to shake customer trust, disrupt essential services, and reverberate throughout communities.”

10 Best Firewalls for Small & Medium Business Networks in 2023

Enterprise Networking Planet, SonicWall News: The SonicWall TZ400 is a mid-range, enterprise-grade security firewall designed to protect small to midsize businesses. It supports up to 150,000 maximum connections, 6,000 new connections per second, and 7×1-Gbe. The TZ400 features 1.3 Gbps firewall inspection throughput, 1.2 Gbps application inspection throughput, 900 Mbps IPS throughput, 900 Mbps VPN throughput, and 600 Mbps threat prevention throughput.

Connecting a home can be a headache: some smart devices still don’t integrate and are a prime target for cybercriminals

Gearrice, SonicWall News: In the case of the connected house, precisely cyberattacks on smart home devices increased 87% globally last year according to data from SonicWall, which places the Smart Home as the segment with the highest growth within the set of malware.

2023 SC Awards Finalists: Best SME Security Solution

SC Magazine, SonicWall News: SonicWall’s next-generation firewall, the SonicWall TZ, which offers converged network security, multi-gigabit interfaces, TLS 1.3, and 5G readiness while providing high-speed threat prevention. This firewall has superior technology, next-gen hardware and SonicOS 7.0 support, enhanced features, and groundbreaking performance.

Cyber awareness training leaves companies exposed to attacks

Channel Life, SonicWall News: In fact, in the first half of 2022, SonicWall detected 270,228 never-before-seen malware variants. That’s an average of 1,500 new variants per day. However, new personalized training that combines machine learning and behavioral science can teach people to see the patterns or architecture commonly part of a threat.

7 Channel People Making Waves this Week

Channel Futures, SonicWall News: “For me, SonicWall is a 30-year industry legend in cybersecurity, one of the hottest topics right now obviously for many MSPs and MSSPs, and customers and partners around the world,” she said. “And SonicWall is sort of this amazing kind of comeback story because they had their acquisition and now they’re private again. And this is not the SonicWall of yesteryear. They have new leadership. They’re reimagining how they go to market (GTM)…”

CRN Women of the Channel

CRN, SonicWall News: SonicWall is delighted to share that CRN has honored four SonicWall team members on its 2023 Women of the Channel List. SonicWall’s new Vice President of North American Channels Michelle Ragusa-McBain, Regional Channel Sales Director Elizabeth Reynolds, Senior Manager Inside Sales Carlien de Vries and Senior Product Marketing Manager Sarah Choi were recognized for their incredible accomplishments in the IT channel.

Key Cybersecurity Threats to Watch For

Risk Management, SonicWall News: Cybercriminals monetize their activities via ransomware, and the tactic, which blocks access to systems or data until a ransom is paid, is being used against companies of all sizes. In 2022, there were nearly 500 million ransomware attacks worldwide, according to SonicWall.

Industry News

Chinese State Hackers Gain Footholds in the US and Guam

Microsoft and multiple governments around the world this week revealed that Chinese government hackers have found their way inside critical infrastructure in the United States and Guam. The group is known as Volt Typhoon and has been gathering intel for China for the past two years. The threat group has been remaining nearly invisible by using the living off the land (LOTL) technique. These findings were published by Microsoft as well as in a joint release that involved CISA, the FBI and four agencies from other countries. Aside from using LOTL, Volt Typhoon has also been using vulnerable home and office routers to communicate with infected computers. Researchers at Microsoft believe the goal of this attack is to disrupt communications between the U.S. and Asia during a future crisis. Guam is vital to the U.S. for military strategy and has been the subject of much intrigue as tensions over Taiwan have reached a boiling point. One thing is for certain – this surely won’t do anything to ease those tensions.

UK Employee Pretends to be Ransomware Gang to Extort Employer

In February 2018, a United Kingdom man named Ashley Liles was working as an IT Security Analyst at a company in Oxford, UK, when the company suffered a ransomware attack at the hands of an external threat actor. Liles participated in the investigation but also used the attack to his advantage. Unbeknownst to his employer, colleagues and the police, Liles committed a second ransomware attack against his employer. He also changed the payment address provided by the original attacker to an address where he would receive the ransom payment instead. Liles created an email address that was almost identical to that of the original attacker and began pressuring his employer to send a cryptocurrency payment to a wallet under his control. Liles initially denied involvement in the attack but finally plead guilty earlier this year. He’ll return to court this July to be sentenced.

US Targets North Korea’s Hidden Threat Actor Army with Sanctions

North Korea has a small army of IT workers around the world that hide in plain sight, using fraudulent credentials and identities to get jobs. These threat actors work in normal positions at normal jobs, but they also secretly funnel illicit funds back to the North Korean government. This week, the United States’ Treasury announced sanctions on four entities related to this threat actor army. The sanctions target the Pyongyang University of Automation, the Technical Reconnaissance Bureau, the Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company and a person named King San Man. PUA is one of North Korea’s top cyber institutions and trains cybercriminals to work in North Korea’s intelligence agencies. The Technical Reconnaissance Bureau leads North Korea’s development of cyber tactics and tools. It also houses the 110^th Research Center which allegedly trained operatives of the Lazarus Group. The US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence stated, “The United States and our partners remain committed to combatting the DPRK’s illicit revenue generation activities and continued efforts to steal money from financial institutions, virtual currency exchanges, companies and private individuals around the world.”

Hundreds of Apps and Websites Affected by OAuth Flaw

Open Authorization (OAuth) is a feature that countless applications and websites use to let users log in to other websites using their credentials from Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter and more. Researchers recently found a vulnerability in the Expo framework that’s being tracked as CVE-2023-28131. Expo is an open-source framework that’s used to develop native apps for Android, iOS and more. According to Dark Reading, Expo is used by hundreds of websites which means this flaw could have a widespread negative impact. The flaw could allow threat actors to take over user accounts, steal credentials and see their full payment information among other things. Expo patched the vulnerability quickly after it was brought to light, but it’s unclear what issues the vulnerability may have already caused before researchers discovered it. The researchers plan to create an OAuth best practices guide to help companies safely implement OAuth in the future.

SonicWall Blog

Is Red/Blue Teaming Right for Your Network? – Stephan Kaiser

NSv Series and Microsoft Azure’s Government Cloud: Strengthening Cloud Security – Tiju Cherian

Four SonicWall Employees Featured on CRN’s 2023 Women of the Channel List – Bret Fitzgerald

NSv Series and AWS GovCloud: Facilitating Government’s Move to the Cloud – Tiju Cherian

The RSA Report: Boots on the Ground – Amber Wolff

The RSA Report – New Tactics, New Technologies – Amber Wolff

The RSA Report, Day 1: Protecting Objective Truth in Cybersecurity – Amber Wolff

The RSA Report: The Road to RSA – Amber Wolff

RSA 2023: What “Stronger Together” Means With SonicWall – Amber Wolff

Cybersecurity: Preventing Disaster from Being Online – Ray Wyman Jr

SonicWall Earns 5-Star Rating in 2023 Partner Program Guide for the Seventh Straight Year – Bret Fitzgerald

Global Threat Data, Worldwide Coverage: The 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report – Amber Wolff

Spring is in full swing, and SonicWall has been splashing into headlines this week. CRN honored four women from SonicWall in its 2023 Women of the Channel List, Channel Futures spoke with new SonicWall North America Channel Chief Michelle Ragusa-McBain and Channel Life cited some information from the 2023 Cyber Threat Report.

In industry news, CyberScoop provided details on the FBI’s takedown of a Russian cyberespionage campaign. Dark Reading dove into details about CISA’s efforts to help “cyber poor” organizations. Bleeping Computer had the scoop on Microsoft’s new MFA number matching enforcement. TechCrunch discussed DDoS-for-hire websites seized by US authorities.

Remember to keep your passwords close and your eyes peeled – cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.

SonicWall News

Cyber awareness training leaves companies exposed to attacks

Channel Life, SonicWall News: In fact, in the first half of 2022, SonicWall detected 270,228 never-before-seen malware variants. That’s an average of 1,500 new variants per day. However, new personalized training that combines machine learning and behavioral science can teach people to see the patterns or architecture commonly part of a threat.

7 Channel People Making Waves this Week

Channel Futures, SonicWall News: “For me, SonicWall is a 30-year industry legend in cybersecurity, one of the hottest topics right now obviously for many MSPs and MSSPs, and customers and partners around the world,” she said. “And SonicWall is sort of this amazing kind of comeback story because they had their acquisition and now they’re private again. And this is not the SonicWall of yesteryear. They have new leadership. They’re reimagining how they go to market (GTM)…”

CRN Women of the Channel

CRN, SonicWall News: SonicWall is delighted to share that CRN has honored four SonicWall team members on its 2023 Women of the Channel List. SonicWall’s new Vice President of North American Channels Michelle Ragusa-McBain, Regional Channel Sales Director Elizabeth Reynolds, Senior Manager Inside Sales Carlien de Vries and Senior Product Marketing Manager Sarah Choi were recognized for their incredible accomplishments in the IT channel.

Key Cybersecurity Threats to Watch For

Risk Management, SonicWall News: Cybercriminals monetize their activities via ransomware, and the tactic, which blocks access to systems or data until a ransom is paid, is being used against companies of all sizes. In 2022, there were nearly 500 million ransomware attacks worldwide, according to SonicWall.

The Most Pressing Security Needs of the SMB and Midmarket

GovInfoSecurity, SonicWall News: Bob VanKirk, president and CEO, SonicWall, highlighted the need for SMBs to have access to the right set of tools and resources to defend their companies and protect their brands. In order to ensure cybersecurity, VanKirk said, organizations must have all the threat data at their fingertips, whether it be a firewall, endpoint or remote access, and have analytics across all those areas.

SonicWall Names North American Channel Chief

ChannelPro, SonicWall News: SonicWall has named Michelle Ragusa-McBain its new channel chief for North America. The hiring is one of several measures, along with the forthcoming introduction of a revamped partner program, aimed at expanding the company’s MSP channel, according to Jason Carter, SonicWall’s CRO.

SonicWall Hires Cisco Vet Michelle Ragusa-McBain as North America Channel Chief

CRN, SonicWall News: SonicWall has hired Cisco Systems veteran Michelle Ragusa-McBain to oversee its large North America channel, as the cybersecurity vendor looks to “reimagine” its business with the help of partners, she said in an interview with CRN.

Cisco Vet Joins SonicWall Channel Team as North America Leader

ChannelFutures, SonicWall News: Ragusa-McBain’s goal is to enable partners to grow and profit with the “boundless shift to cybersecurity.” SonicWall announced her appointment at this week’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo, co-located with MSP Summit.

CIA 2023: Top Solution Providers

Channel Daily News, SonicWall News: It helps customers by delivering integrated technology solutions and services that include security, cloud, data centre, networking, collaboration and digital transformation. This year it singled out HPE, Cisco, Veeam and SonicWall as its partners of the year.

SonicWall Partner Program Updates Coming

Channel Futures (Slide 4), SonicWall News: “We’ll be updating our partner program,” VanKirk said. “We’ve seen incredible growth out of what we have called our MSSP program in the past. We’re redoing that program altogether so that it will allow a much broader set of partners to participate and take advantage of, for example, monthly billing and if the number of users goes up or down, you’re only paying for that number. So we’re expanding that program, allowing a lot more partners in. We’ll be expanding that offering. It was just a few solutions. Now what we’re doing with all the changes, it used to be OK after the products were out, hey, what can we send through the MSSP program and service provider program. Now at the front end before a product even is going into the life cycle development, the PMs have to justify why or where is that going to fit in the partner program and the service provider program, which is a whole different approach that contributes to our seeing so much strength there.”

Malware attacks on the rise in higher ed

EdScoop, SonicWall News: Malware attacks against higher education institutions rose by 26% last year, according to SonicWall’s 2023 Cyber Threat Report. The report, published earlier this month, found that while malware attacks rose, ransomware attacks targeting higher education institutions declined 29% last year.

SD Worx pauses HR operations after cyberattack

Unleashed, SonicWall News: SonicWall warned recently that “new tactics are being developed with breathtaking speed. For the past two years, ransomware has been on a tear, increasing 62% year over year in 2020 and another 105% in 2021,” a 2023 SonicWall report said. “During this time, ransomware-as-a-service took off, compromised credentials became cheaper and more plentiful than ever, and the number of vulnerabilities continued hitting record highs.

Industry News

FBI’s Operation Medusa Thwarts Russian Cyberespionage Campaign

An international effort spearheaded by the FBI has disrupted a 20-year-old malware operation spawning from Turla, a unit inside Russia’s Federal Security Service known for sophisticated cyberespionage attacks. The unit has been continuously updating and enhancing a piece of malware known as “Snake” since 2004. The group used the malware to steal sensitive documents and infiltrate computer systems in over 50 countries over the past two decades. The data they stole was exfiltrated through a complex network of compromised computers in the US and elsewhere. The FBI gained physical access to the compromised computers and used that access to create a tool of its own called “Perseus” to decode the communications being exfiltrated by Turla. On Monday, the FBI used Perseus to issue a command to Snake to cause it to overwrite its own vital components – they made Snake eat its own tail, if you will. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, “We will continue to strengthen our collective defenses against the Russian regime’s destabilizing efforts to undermine the security of the United States and our allies.”

CISA Aims to Help “Cyber Poor” Businesses, Schools and Hospitals

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) is taking aim at helping organizations that don’t have the knowledge or dedicated resources to defend themselves from cyber threats or even know if they’re being attacked. Such organizations include small businesses, local government agencies, hospitals, schools and more. The goal of CISA is to both help these organizations and understand their needs. Most of the agency’s efforts have been focused on larger organizations, but with attackers targeting more and more defenseless organizations, CISA feels it’s the right time to try and bridge the gaps these “cyber poor” institutions face. CISA has a section of its website dedicated to free resources anyone can use to better protect their organization.

Microsoft to Use Number Matching to Counter MFA Fatigue Attacks

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) fatigue attacks are becoming more common right alongside the growth of MFA adoption. To combat this, Microsoft is now enforcing number matching in its Microsoft Authenticator application. In an MFA fatigue attack, a threat actor will send ridiculous amounts of MFA push notifications to the target hoping that the target will accept one of them in an attempt to make them stop. This type of attack has a decent success rate for these threat actors. Many users will think the repeated notifications are a bug or organizational error. Once accepted, the attacker now has full access to the user’s account. According to Bleeping Computer, threat groups like Lapsus$ and Yanluowang used this type of social engineering attack to breach Microsoft, Cisco and Uber. Number matching helps prevent this type of attack because it gives the threat actor a specific number that the real user needs to press to approve. Since the real user will not know the correct number to press, it makes the odds of this attack being successful much lower.

13 DDoS-for-hire Websites Seized by US Authorities

Authorities in the United States seized 13 domains that had been connected to some of the most notorious DDoS-for-hire websites. The websites in question had been marketed as legitimate stress-testing tools – in reality, they were used to carry out DDoS attacks. On Monday, the FBI announced that they had seized these websites as a part of Operation PowerOFF, which is an international effort to shut down these DDoS-for-hire websites. According to TechCrunch, one of the 13 seized websites was still operating as normal. The FBI did not respond to questions concerning that website in particular. The international organizations involved in the takedown include the Dutch police, Europol and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency.

SonicWall Blog

NSv Series and Microsoft Azure’s Government Cloud: Strengthening Cloud Security – Tiju Cherian

Four SonicWall Employees Featured on CRN’s 2023 Women of the Channel List – Bret Fitzgerald

NSv Series and AWS GovCloud: Facilitating Government’s Move to the Cloud – Tiju Cherian

The RSA Report: Boots on the Ground – Amber Wolff

The RSA Report – New Tactics, New Technologies – Amber Wolff

The RSA Report, Day 1: Protecting Objective Truth in Cybersecurity – Amber Wolff

The RSA Report: The Road to RSA – Amber Wolff

RSA 2023: What “Stronger Together” Means With SonicWall – Amber Wolff

Cybersecurity: Preventing Disaster from Being Online – Ray Wyman Jr

SonicWall Earns 5-Star Rating in 2023 Partner Program Guide for the Seventh Straight Year – Bret Fitzgerald

Global Threat Data, Worldwide Coverage: The 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report – Amber Wolff

Tomorrow is Big Word Day, which should please any of our sesquipedalian readers. SonicWall will have a booth at the RSA Conference in San Francisco next week. If you’re going to be at RSAC, we’d love for you to stop by!

In industry news, TechCrunch spoke with the Western Digital hackers about their demands. Dark Reading covered the early prison release of a convicted Nintendo hacker with a thematic last name. Bleeping Computer provided details about the Google red teaming tool that’s being used for nefarious purposes. Hacker News dug into the breach at Kodi.

Remember to keep your passwords close and your eyes peeled – cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.

SonicWall News

SD Worx pauses HR operations after cyberattack

Unleashed, SonicWall News: SonicWall warned recently that “new tactics are being developed with breathtaking speed. For the past two years, ransomware has been on a tear, increasing 62% year over year in 2020 and another 105% in 2021,” a 2023 SonicWall report said. “During this time, ransomware-as-a-service took off, compromised credentials became cheaper and more plentiful than ever, and the number of vulnerabilities continued hitting record highs.

FBI warning: Don’t use public phone charging stations

San Francisco Examiner, SonicWall News: SonicWall warned recently that “new tactics are being developed with breathtaking speed. For the past two years, ransomware has been on a tear, increasing 62% year over year in 2020 and another 105% in 2021,” a 2023 SonicWall report said. “During this time, ransomware-as-a-service took off, compromised credentials became cheaper and more plentiful than ever, and the number of vulnerabilities continued hitting record highs.

UAE residents can insure phones, other gadgets against cyberattacks, economic losses

Zawya (UAE), SonicWall News: According to the latest figures from cybersecurity leader SonicWall reveal, the UAE recorded a 14 percent drop in total malware attacks in 2022 but the number of attacks in 2022 in the UAE (71 million) was more than the combined total in 2019 and 2020 (37.3 million and 19 million, respectively).

North Korea accelerates nuclear missile programme with ‘treasure sword’ — $1.7bn from crypto heists

DL News, SonicWall News: “As for individual crypto investors, they should be aware of the risks of having their assets in these exchanges,” said Chavoya. “North Korean crypto hacking is so important to the Kim regime that it is going to continue scaling despite tighter restrictions,” Chavoya said.

Hackers Are Cashing in With Hijacked IP Addresses

TechNewsWorld, SonicWall News: These apps are often promoted via referral programs, with many notable “influencers” promoting them for passive income opportunities, said Immanuel Chavoya, the senior manager of product security at SonicWall, a network firewall maker in Milpitas, Calif.

Behavior-Based Security Training to Stem Tide of Cybersecurity Breaches

American Security Today, SonicWall News: In the first half of 2022, SonicWall detected 270,228 never-before-seen malware variants. That’s an average of 1,500 new variants per day.

Silence gets you nowhere in a data breach

TechCrunch, SonicWall News: Attackers are increasingly targeting smaller businesses – as outlined in the 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report – due to the fact they are seen as easier targets than large companies. This means that your startup is likely to get compromised at some point.

SonicWall CEO: Success will come from listening to partners

Microscope, SonicWall News: “I kind of flipped the sales team upside down to really make the team aligned with our partners,” he said. “Our partners are a force multiplier, one of our key differentiators. Not diminishing our product capabilities, but from the go-to-market standpoint, I really leaned into better aligning, and better listening to our channels where they were going with their businesses, requirements, needs and pain points.

Malware attacks on IoT and cryptojacking are growing in 2022

Computer Weekly (Spain), SonicWall News: Despite the 21% drop in ransomware globally, 2022 was the second year with the highest number of attack attempts with 493.3 million, SonicWall, which also reported a 2% increase in malware, 87% in IoT malware and 43% in cryptojacking.

DC Health Link Breach Exposes Private Information of Lawmakers

InformationWeek, SonicWall News: The healthcare industry is a popular target for breaches. Care providers and insurance companies safeguard valuable data. “Threat actors believe that healthcare providers and related organizations have no option but to pay the ransom, as restoring operations can mean the difference between life and death,” Immanuel Chavoya, threat detection and response strategist at cybersecurity company SonicWall, points out.

Ferrari in Italy targeted in cyber attack

MotorTrader, SonicWall News: In the UK, dealer groups Pendragon and Arnold have been targeted for cyber crime. According to the cyber security 2023 SonicWall Threat Report the UK is the 2nd most attacked country in the world, after the US. It said ransomware attacks last year doubled.

Covert Cyberattacks on The Rise as Attackers Shift Tactics for Maximum Impact

HelpNetSecurity, SonicWall News: 2022 was the second-highest year on record for global ransomware attempts, as well as an 87% increase in IoT malware and a record number of cryptojacking attacks (139.3 million), according to SonicWall.

Industry News

Western Digital Hackers Claim to Have Customer Information

Western Digital is in a bind as the hackers responsible for the breach on the data storage giant are seeking a minimum eight-figure payment to stop the release of massive amounts of information. The bad actors claim to have over 10 terabytes of Western Digital’s data including heaps of customer information. TechCrunch spoke with one of the hackers to attempt to verify their claims. The hackers were in possession of Western Digital’s code-signing certificate and are therefore capable of forging Western Digital’s digital signature. TechCrunch had two security researchers view the signature, and they verified it is indeed the company’s signature. The threat actors also proved to TechCrunch that they were in possession of multiple Western Digital executives’ phone numbers – numbers that are not public. The hackers sent Western Digital an email outlining their demands, and they have stated that they are prepared to start publishing the stolen data if Western Digital does not get back to them soon.

User Data and Private Messages Stolen in Kodi Breach

A threat actor group breached the developers of an open-source media player stealing over 400,000 user records and private messages. The hackers infiltrated Kodi using the stolen credentials of an administrator and stole it’s entire MyBB forum database including backups. Kodi noted that the account that stole the information has now been deactivated after it accessed the databases twice in February. According to Hacker News, Kodi is working on rolling out a global password reset out of an abundance of caution. The company has also taken down the breached forum for the time being and is working on implementing several other security measures.

Nintendo Hacker Named Bowser Earns Early Prison Release

A man named Gary Bowser has been released from prison early for his good behavior. Gary Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison in 2021 for his part in hacking Nintendo. Mr. Bowser was part of a hacker group called Team Xecuter that sold hacked chips to allow users to play pirated games on Nintendo consoles including the Nintendo Switch. On top of the prison sentence, Mr. Bowser was ordered to pay $14.5 million to Nintendo for his part in the $65 million dollars in losses he and Team Xecutor caused Nintendo over the course of a decade. Mr. Bowser has already paid off $175 (0.00001%) of the $14.5 million he owes to Nintendo thanks to his prison library job. Dark Reading stated that the extreme punishment for Mr. Bowser was doled out to deter other cyber criminals from committing similar crimes.

Chinese State-sponsored Hackers Abuse Google Command and Control

Data theft attacks on Taiwanese media and an Italian job search company have been linked to the Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as APT41. The threat group, also known as HOODOO, was abusing the Google Command and Control (GC2) red teaming tool to commit the attacks. GC2 is an open-source tool designed specifically for red teaming activities. It was Google’s own Threat Analysis Group (TAG) that discovered HOODOO was abusing GC2 for nefarious purposes. HOODOO is known to target a wide range of industries typically in the United States, Asia and Europe. The attacks were brought to light in Google’s April 2023 Threat Horizons Report, which was released late last week. TAG interfered in a HOODOO phishing campaign where HOODOO was trying to bait users into clicking links that led to a protected file in Google Drive. Users who fell for the sham emails would inadvertently install GC2 effectively compromising their systems. It’s unclear which malware was offloaded in the attacks, all that is known so far is that GC2 was used to deploy it. According to Bleeping Computer, this isn’t the first instance of threat actors using red teaming tools. Recently, some groups have been using other red teaming tools like Brute Ratel and Sliver to avoid detection. The reality is that any tool that can be used for red teaming activities can also be used for criminal activities.

SonicWall Blog

The RSA Report: The Road to RSA – Amber Wolff

RSA 2023: What “Stronger Together” Means With SonicWall – Amber Wolff

Cybersecurity: Preventing Disaster from Being Online – Ray Wyman Jr

SonicWall Earns 5-Star Rating in 2023 Partner Program Guide for the Seventh Straight Year – Bret Fitzgerald

Global Threat Data, Worldwide Coverage: The 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report – Amber Wolff

U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy Represents Paradigm Shift in IT Security – Darryl Jenkins

SonicWall Data Shows Attacks on Schools Skyrocketing – Amber Wolff

Recognizing Outstanding Partner and Distributor Performance in 2022 – Bob VanKirk

Latest Threat Intelligence Reveals Rising Tide of Cryptojacking – Amber Wolff

Latest Threat Intelligence Tracks Shifting Cyber Frontlines in 2022 – Amber Wolff

New SMA Release Updates OpenSSL Library, Includes Key Security Features – Jai Balasubramaniyan

SonicWall Recognizes Bill Conner for Transition of Business, Impact on Cybersecurity Industry – Bret Fitzgerald

April is fully underway, and SonicWall has continued to captivate media. American Security Today cited data from the 2023 Cyber Threat Report while DL News and TechNewsWorld quoted SonicWall’s senior manager of product security, Immanuel Chavoya.

In industry news, Dark Reading has a story on a security researcher tricking ChatGPT into creating an undetectable malware tool. TechCrunch provides insight into the Western Digital data breach. Hacker News breaks down Operation Cookie Monster and the fall of Genesis Market. Bleeping Computer dives into details on an IRS-approved tax software spreading malware.

Remember to keep your passwords close and your eyes peeled — cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.

SonicWall News

North Korea accelerates nuclear missile programme with ‘treasure sword’ — $1.7bn from crypto heists

DL News, SonicWall News: “As for individual crypto investors, they should be aware of the risks of having their assets in these exchanges,” said Chavoya. “North Korean crypto hacking is so important to the Kim regime that it is going to continue scaling despite tighter restrictions,” Chavoya said.

Hackers Are Cashing in With Hijacked IP Addresses

TechNewsWorld, SonicWall News: These apps are often promoted via referral programs, with many notable “influencers” promoting them for passive income opportunities, said Immanuel Chavoya, the senior manager of product security at SonicWall, a network firewall maker in Milpitas, Calif.

Behavior-Based Security Training to Stem Tide of Cybersecurity Breaches

American Security Today, SonicWall News: In the first half of 2022, SonicWall detected 270,228 never-before-seen malware variants. That’s an average of 1,500 new variants per day.

Silence gets you nowhere in a data breach

TechCrunch, SonicWall News: Attackers are increasingly targeting smaller businesses – as outlined in the 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report – due to the fact they are seen as easier targets than large companies. This means that your startup is likely to get compromised at some point.

SonicWall CEO: Success will come from listening to partners

Microscope, SonicWall News: “I kind of flipped the sales team upside down to really make the team aligned with our partners,” he said. “Our partners are a force multiplier, one of our key differentiators. Not diminishing our product capabilities, but from the-go-to market standpoint, I really leaned into better aligning, and better listening to our channels where they were going with their businesses, requirements, needs and pain points.

Malware attacks on IoT and cryptojacking are growing in 2022

Computer Weekly (Spain), SonicWall News: Despite the 21% drop in ransomware globally, 2022 was the second year with the highest number of attack attempts with 493.3 million, SonicWall, which also reported a 2% increase in malware, 87% in IoT malware and 43% in cryptojacking.

DC Health Link Breach Exposes Private Information of Lawmakers

InformationWeek, SonicWall News: The healthcare industry is a popular target for breaches. Care providers and insurance companies safeguard valuable data. “Threat actors believe that healthcare providers and related organizations have no option but to pay the ransom, as restoring operations can mean the difference between life and death,” Immanuel Chavoya, threat detection and response strategist at cybersecurity company SonicWall, points out.

Ferrari in Italy targeted in cyber attack

MotorTrader, SonicWall News: In the UK, dealer groups Pendragon and Arnold have been targeted for cyber crime. According to the cyber security 2023 SonicWall Threat Report the UK is the 2nd most attacked country in the world, after the US. It said ransomware attacks last year doubled.

Covert Cyberattacks on The Rise as Attackers Shift Tactics for Maximum Impact

HelpNetSecurity, SonicWall News: 2022 was the second-highest year on record for global ransomware attempts, as well as an 87% increase in IoT malware and a record number of cryptojacking attacks (139.3 million), according to SonicWall.

2023 Could Be the Biggest Ever Year for Cybercrime

TechRadarPro, SonicWall News: 2023 could very well be the biggest year ever for cybercriminals, new figures have claimed. According to SonicWall’s latest figures, cybercrime is on the rise across the board, but trends are slowly shifting which is something IT security teams should keep in mind. More precisely, hackers are opting for a “slow and low” approach, keeping stealthy while trying to achieve financially-motivated goals.

Spikes In IoT Malware, Cryptojacking Offset Decline in Ransomware In 2022

MSSP Alert, SonicWall News: SonicWall researchers recorded the second-highest year on record for global ransomware attempts but it was an 87% increase in Internet of Things (IoT) malware and a record number of cryptojacking attacks (139.3 million) that signaled a shift in the overall threat landscape in 2022, the company said in a new report.

Cybercrime Spiked In 2022 — And This Year Could Be Worse

Digital Trends, SonicWall News: Last year saw a massive spike in cybercrime, with some types of malicious digital activity rising by as much as 87%. It doesn’t bode well — but there were a couple of relative bright spots. That information comes from a new report published by cybersecurity firm SonicWall. It makes for interesting reading, especially since one of the biggest rises came from an unusual source — and one of the most feared types of malware saw a hefty drop.

Industry News

ChatGPT Tricked into Creating Undetectable Malware

Every time we think OpenAI’s ChatGPT has hit a wall, something new happens and makes us reassess its potential – for both good and evil. This week, a security researcher has somehow fooled ChatGPT’s anti-malicious-use protocols and convinced the artificial intelligence to create an undetectable steganography malware. According to Dark Reading, the researcher had zero experience writing malware. The user simply coaxed ChatGPT into performing multiple simple prompts that eventually resulted in an undetectable malicious tool that can search devices for specific documents and then export them to Google Drive. The researcher pointed out that the exploit ChatGPT created is not new, so don’t be overly concerned just yet. It’s still incredible that the chatbot was able to produce this piece of malware in approximately four hours. When the researcher put the tool into Virus Total, only five vendors out of 60 flagged the tool as suspicious. He asked ChatGPT to tweak the code, and, after several tweaks, zero vendors in Virus Total flagged the tool as suspicious. The reality is that AI’s will only get better at producing malicious tools. Fortunately, there are just as many people working to produce AI’s that can detect malicious codes, such as SonicWall’s own Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI).

Western Digital Loses Data to Hackers

California-based data storage company Western Digital experienced a network security incident last week that resulted in stolen data. On Monday, Western Digital announced that threat actors had infiltrated multiple company systems. As soon as they realized that this was going on, they brought in outside security and forensic experts to assess the situation. The investigation is still in the preliminary stages, so the full extent of the damages may not be known for some time. The company did say this may cause disruptions to business operations as they press forward. According to TechCrunch, no known threat actor group has taken credit for the breach as of yet.

FBI Arrests 119 Cybercriminals Linked to Genesis Market

Genesis Market, a dark web market known for selling stolen credentials, has been dismantled in an effort involving authorities from 17 countries. The bust led to 119 arrests and 208 searches in 13 countries. Genesis Market was created in early 2018 and quickly became a cybercriminal haven. The multi-country operation to take it down was codenamed “Operation Cookie Monster.” According to Hacker News, Genesis Market had over 80 million illegally acquired credentials listed for sale. The credentials were linked to email addresses, bank accounts, social media accounts and more. Genesis Market also sold device fingerprints to help cybercriminals skirt anti-fraud measures and truly take on the online identity of the victims. According to court documents pertaining to the case, the FBI infiltrated Genesis Market’s backend servers in late 2020 and again in Spring 2022. During that time, the FBI was able to retrieve information on 59,000 users of the market. As of now, a mirror of the website is still running, and multiple similar illegal marketplaces continue to exist. This is still a major global victory for those fighting against cybercrime.

Tax Tool Approved by IRS Sending out Malware

A popular tax return software, eFile.com, has been caught sending out malware to its users. eFile is authorized by the United States’ Internal Revenue Service as an approved tax software. This revelation coming during tax season as millions of Americans finalize their taxes causes even more concern. Bleeping Computer was able to confirm the existence of the malware file known as “popper.js” through its own research. The first signs of concern appeared on a Reddit thread where some users believed that eFile had been compromised. Bleeping Computer analyzed the malware and noted that it is a backdoor malware which allows bad actors to access the compromised device remotely. At this time, the website is no longer sending out the malicious code.

SonicWall Blog

RSA 2023: What “Stronger Together” Means With SonicWall – Amber Wolff

Cybersecurity: Preventing Disaster from Being Online – Ray Wyman Jr

SonicWall Earns 5-Star Rating in 2023 Partner Program Guide for the Seventh Straight Year – Bret Fitzgerald

Global Threat Data, Worldwide Coverage: The 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report – Amber Wolff

U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy Represents Paradigm Shift in IT Security – Darryl Jenkins

SonicWall Data Shows Attacks on Schools Skyrocketing – Amber Wolff

Recognizing Outstanding Partner and Distributor Performance in 2022 – Bob VanKirk

Latest Threat Intelligence Reveals Rising Tide of Cryptojacking – Amber Wolff

Latest Threat Intelligence Tracks Shifting Cyber Frontlines in 2022 – Amber Wolff

New SMA Release Updates OpenSSL Library, Includes Key Security Features – Jai Balasubramaniyan

SonicWall Recognizes Bill Conner for Transition of Business, Impact on Cybersecurity Industry – Bret Fitzgerald

SonicWall’s Jason Carter and Matt Brennan Earn 2023 CRN Channel Chief Recognition – Bret Fitzgerald

Curated cybersecurity news and trends from the industry’s leading bloggers and news outlets, for you from SonicWall.

Spring is in the air, and SonicWall’s media presence is blooming. InformationWeek quoted our threat detection and response strategist, Immanuel Chavoya, on healthcare. MotorTrader cited data from the 2023 Cyber Threat Report.

In industry news, FCW dives into details on the federal governments new program for cybersecurity employees. Data Breach Today has the story on the FBI’s arrest of BreachForum’s notorious administrator. Bleeping Computer breaks down the zero-day attack on General Byte’s Bitcoin ATMs. Hacker News provides insight on bot-based DDoS attacks exploiting vulnerable servers and routers.

Remember to keep your passwords close and your eyes peeled — cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.

SonicWall News

DC Health Link Breach Exposes Private Information of Lawmakers

InformationWeek, SonicWall News: The healthcare industry is a popular target for breaches. Care providers and insurance companies safeguard valuable data. “Threat actors believe that healthcare providers and related organizations have no option but to pay the ransom, as restoring operations can mean the difference between life and death,” Immanuel Chavoya, threat detection and response strategist at cybersecurity company SonicWall, points out.

Ferrari in Italy targeted in cyber attack

MotorTrader, SonicWall News: In the UK, dealer groups Pendragon and Arnold have been targeted for cyber crime. According to the cyber security 2023 SonicWall Threat Report the UK is the 2nd most attacked country in the world, after the US. It said ransomware attacks last year doubled.

Covert Cyberattacks on The Rise as Attackers Shift Tactics for Maximum Impact

HelpNetSecurity, SonicWall News: 2022 was the second-highest year on record for global ransomware attempts, as well as an 87% increase in IoT malware and a record number of cryptojacking attacks (139.3 million), according to SonicWall.

2023 Could Be the Biggest Ever Year for Cybercrime

TechRadarPro, SonicWall News: 2023 could very well be the biggest year ever for cybercriminals, new figures have claimed. According to SonicWall’s latest figures, cybercrime is on the rise across the board, but trends are slowly shifting which is something IT security teams should keep in mind. More precisely, hackers are opting for a “slow and low” approach, keeping stealthy while trying to achieve financially-motivated goals.

Spikes In IoT Malware, Cryptojacking Offset Decline in Ransomware In 2022

MSSP Alert, SonicWall News: SonicWall researchers recorded the second-highest year on record for global ransomware attempts but it was an 87% increase in Internet of Things (IoT) malware and a record number of cryptojacking attacks (139.3 million) that signaled a shift in the overall threat landscape in 2022, the company said in a new report.

Cybercrime Spiked In 2022 — And This Year Could Be Worse

Digital Trends, SonicWall News: Last year saw a massive spike in cybercrime, with some types of malicious digital activity rising by as much as 87%. It doesn’t bode well — but there were a couple of relative bright spots. That information comes from a new report published by cybersecurity firm SonicWall. It makes for interesting reading, especially since one of the biggest rises came from an unusual source — and one of the most feared types of malware saw a hefty drop.

Ransomware Attacks Plunged 48 Percent in US Last Year: SonicWall

CRN, SonicWall News: In a major reversal from prior years, the volume of ransomware attacks globally dropped by 21 percent in 2022, year-over-year, with a 48-percent decline in the U.S., SonicWall said in a new report Tuesday. It’s encouraging that we’re seeing a decrease” in ransomware attacks, SonicWall CEO Bob VanKirk said in an interview with CRN. At the same time, “the number of attacks still is staggering,” VanKirk said.

Ransomware Threat Surges as Brits Suffer Millions of Attacks In 2022

Evening Standard, SonicWall News: The scale of the threat posed to companies and consumers by cyberattacks was laid bare today in a new report which reveals global ransomware attempts hit their second highest year on record in 2022.

Cyber intrusion attempts and malware attacks climbed 19% and 2% respectively, according to the Global Cyberattack Trends report by SonicWall, while crypto-theft attacks jumped 43% to reach a record high. The volume of ransomware attacks was especially severe in the UK, climbing a staggering 112% in 2022, the report found, despite a 21% decrease in attacks worldwide.

Experts Spot Half a Million Novel Malware Variants in 2022

InfoSecurity, SonicWall News: Global malware detections increased 2% year-on-year (YoY) in 2022 to hit 5.5 billion, with never-before-seen variants surging 5%, according to SonicWall. The security vendor captured threat intelligence from its global SonicWall Capture Threat network, including one million security sensors, in order to compile its 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report.

Ransomware Threat Surges as Brits Suffer Millions of Attacks In 2022

MSN, SonicWall News: Bob Vankirk, CEO of SonicWall, said: “The past year reinforced the need for cybersecurity in every industry and every facet of business, as threat actors targeted anything and everything, from education to retail to finance. While organizations face an increasing number of real-world obstacles with macroeconomic pressures and continued geopolitical strife, threat actors are shifting attack strategies at an alarming rate.”

State-Sponsored Hackers Are Diversifying Tactics, Targeting Small Businesses

IT Pro, SonicWall News: State-sponsored threat actors are increasingly shifting their focus towards SMBs and smaller enterprises, according to new research. While large enterprises, public services, and critical national infrastructure have traditionally been key targets for state-sponsored threat actors, SonicWall’s 2023 Cyber Threat Report predicted that groups will ‘diversify’ their tactics in 2023 to target SMBs and a “broader set of victims.”

Cybersecurity Predictions for 2023 – Things You Should Know

Utah Pulse, SonicWall News: SonicWall reports a 328% YoY increase in healthcare ransomware attacks in 2022, and healthcare and education are expected to be among the most targeted sectors in 2023. The expanding IoT footprint in these sectors is predicted to make them more vulnerable to digital attacks, increasing the risk to critical infrastructure.

Industry News

FBI Tracks Down, Arrests BreachForum’s Administrator

FBI agents tracked down the apparent administrator of an underground hacker forum this past week. They arrested the man at his home in Peekskill, New York. Federal agents identified him as Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, a 2021 graduate of Peekskill High School. His name on the forum was “Pompompurin.” Beyond being a hub for cybercriminal tools, BreachForums also allows users to advertise searching for members and for targets. According to Data Breach Today, a federal agent disclosed that Fitzpatrick admitted to him that he was the administrator of the criminal forum during the arrest. This will not be the end of BreachForums, as another user – named “Baphomet” – has now taken control and vows that he will not be caught.

Bitcoin ATM Loses $1.5 Million In Zero-day Attack

A popular Bitcoin ATM manufacturer, General Bytes, revealed that threat actors stole $1.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from the company and its customers using a zero-day exploit. The exploit is being tracked as BATM-4780, and it was found in the companies BATM management platform. Bleeping Computer states that General Bytes is now shutting down its cloud services due to the difficulties they’ve faced in securing it. The company has audited its security systems numerous times since 2021 but still failed to identify the zero-day vulnerability that led to this attack. On Twitter, the company urged customers to ensure their servers are running the latest updates to better protect them.

Federal Government Implementing New Program to Address Cybersecurity Skills Gap

The Office of Personnel Management provided an update regarding the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program. The program will give high-performing government cybersecurity employees the option to temporarily work at different agencies to help address the growing cybersecurity skills gap. Participating employees will need signed permission from their current agency to initiate the transfer. According to FCW, those wishing to take on one of these assignments will need to have scored a minimum of “fully successful” on their most recent performance review. These temporary details will last anywhere from six months to a full year. This new program won’t begin until 2027 due to existing laws unless congress intervenes.

Naruto-themed Bot Exploiting Router and Server Vulnerabilities

A GoLang-based bot named HinataBot is wreaking havoc by exploiting security flaws in routers and servers to stage DDoS attacks. The bot is named after a character from the hit anime series “Naruto.” The bot is using vulnerable Hadoop YARN servers and Realtek SDK devices to set up the attacks. The threat actors have been active since December 2022 and have been using their custom HinataBot since January 2023. The bot is apparently still in active development because new functions and analysis-resistance features have been documented as recently as this month. According to Hacker News, DDoS attacks are expected to continue to rise due to new malware strains that can target IoT devices and more.

SonicWall Blog

U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy Represents Paradigm Shift in IT Security – Darryl Jenkins

SonicWall Data Shows Attacks on Schools Skyrocketing – Amber Wolff

Recognizing Outstanding Partner and Distributor Performance in 2022 – Bob VanKirk

Latest Threat Intelligence Reveals Rising Tide of Cryptojacking – Amber Wolff

Latest Threat Intelligence Tracks Shifting Cyber Frontlines in 2022 – Amber Wolff

New SMA Release Updates OpenSSL Library, Includes Key Security Features – Jai Balasubramaniyan

SonicWall Recognizes Bill Conner for Transition of Business, Impact on Cybersecurity Industry – Bret Fitzgerald

SonicWall’s Jason Carter and Matt Brennan Earn 2023 CRN Channel Chief Recognition – Bret Fitzgerald

Can You Catch All the Phish? Take Our New Phishing IQ Quiz and Find Out! – Ken Dang

Celebrating 2023 With Expanded “3 & Free” – Matt Brennan

The Art of Cyber War: Sun Tzu and Cybersecurity – Ray Wyman

Talking Boundless Cybersecurity at the Schoolscape IT 2022 Conference – Mohamed Abdallah